Quell Therapeutics, a leader in developing engineered T-regulatory (Treg) cell therapies for serious medical conditions driven by the immune system, announced it has entered a collaboration with the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult). The collaboration will expand Quell’s clinical manufacturing capabilities and capacity in one of the recently opened specialist large-scale manufacturing modules at CGT Catapult’s manufacturing innovation centre in Stevenage, UK. This will add a second GMP facility to Quell’s manufacturing operations and allow the Company to efficiently develop and scale the production of its novel multi-modular engineered Treg cell therapies for clinical trials.
Quell is currently preparing for the first ever clinical trial of a multi-modular engineered Treg cell therapy with its lead candidate QEL-001, which is designed to prevent organ rejection in liver transplant patients. Quell remains on track to begin the Phase 1/2 “LIBERATE” trial with QEL-001 in the first quarter of 2022. The LIBERATE study will be the first Treg based therapy in transplantation aiming to free patients from all systemic immune suppression.
“In the two years since we launched Quell in 2019, a key part of our strategy has been to build a world-leading manufacturing capability for our engineered Treg product candidates that includes both expert talent and dedicated GMP infrastructure,” said Iain McGill, Chief Executive Officer of Quell Therapeutics. “Our agreement with CGT Catapult is an important strategic step that gives us the flexibility to scale our production capacity, which is crucial to the success of our business both near term, as we prepare for our first clinical trial with QEL-001, and longer term, as we advance our pipeline of novel engineered Treg cell therapies in neuroinflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”
“The Stevenage CGT Catapult Manufacturing Innovation Centre is a proven model that enables emerging cell and gene therapy companies to further develop their own GMP manufacturing capability at one of the world's premier centres for the development of advanced therapies. I am very excited about this collaboration, which forms a key pillar of our process development, manufacturing and supply strategy,” added Bernd Schmidt, VP Product Delivery at Quell Therapeutics.
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